While locating a "popping" sound in the front of the truck, I decided to remove the Trac Bar. Long story short, trac bar was the offending noise. Upper (left) mounting bolt was VERY worn, and bushings at both ends look shot. After doing some research over on the "Brake/Suspension" forum there seems to be a few folks who have removed their trac bars permanently.
Everyone on that forum seems to be of the opinion that the stock Superduty springs need the trac bar, but a 6" lift or greater using springs, (not shackles or blocks obviously) might make it OK to remove the trac bar.


My truck is an 01 Super Cab, Short bed, with 8" Skyjacker lift, drop pitman arm and trac bar relocate brackets. I have never had any bump steer issues (drag link and trac bar are parallel).


I removed the trac bar yesterday and have been driving the truck around the farm a bunch. I really like the difference in the ride. The suspension finally feels like it is flexing the way it should, and no longer feels "bound". I tried a few miles on the road too. I'm going to try more miles on the road today, but so far no adverse affects. I live off of a 3 mile stretch of nearly deserted road, so risk to others should be very minimal if not non-existent. I will gradually work my way up to freeway speeds, try some slow speed manuvering to find out how bad body roll will be (minimal I'm thinking) and some emergency braking. Any other suggestions?


I guess the purpose of this post is to find out if it is safe to operate the truck in this way. I wont mind replacing the bushings and bolt and putting the trac bar back on, but the truck feels so much better, I'd like to leave it off if possible, but only if it's safe. If anyone is currently operating without the trac bar, or has in the past can you chime in here? One concern (when looking at the geometry) may be keeping a close watch on the U-bolts, and making sure they are tight at regular intervals...like at oil changes for instance. Looking forward to hearing from you guys, and if there is any interest, I'll update this after some more miles.

 

I have never heard of anyone running a modern truck without the track bar.

I can tell you we put a 4" lift on a early '90's F350, straight axle, leaf springs, and didn't tighten the track arm frame bracket tight enough to the frame. When it hit a bump, manhole cover, etc. at about 40mph it got a death wobble that would knock you teeth out. just my $.02.

 

The trac bar keeps the front axle running straight under the truck. Take a sharp turn without the trac bar and the front axle will want to walk out from under the truck. If you do this often enough there is going to be a bigger problem you may find when you least expect it.

 

This doesn't make sense. I was going to start a thread asking why we even have a track bar. They're normally found on four link suspension with coil springs. With our trucks, the leaf springs keep the axle centered under the truck. The axle shouldn't move if everting is tight.

I did a solid axle swap on my 4Runner (cut off all the IFS) and it runs down the road like it was factory, no trac bar and no death wobble. This has 4" super soft leafs. so it's far from being stiff.

Just a little confused.

 

The spring hangers on the newer trucks are not as beefy as the older trucks. If you look at the hangers from a 1970's F250 (and the front hanger X-member, with no trac-bar) they are built a lot heavier then todays truck. Also I believe the rubber bushings in the leaf ends are larger (more rubber) in todays truck vs. yesteryears allowing more lateral movement. Bottom line; you know Ford would not spend any more money then needed, the engineers must had deceided it was necessary for a reason.

 

I didn't design this thing. When I lifted my '99 V10 I forgot to reconnect the trac bar and making a turn I KNEW something wasn't right. The steering was all over the road so I pulled over and found the trac bar disconnected.

Hey do what you want, I'll keep mine connected.

 

As Heavy said, the trac bar helps keep the front axle properly positioned and provides for stability in turning/cornering. Even with a leaf suspension, the trac bar reduces the stress placed on the suspension components from side loads encountered during turns. Yes, a leaf suspension can take some degree of side loads but it wasn't necessarily designed to handle side loads without assistance from the trac bar. As for me, I'll keep my trac bar hooked up. But then again, I have a coil spring front suspension in which a trac bar is critical.

 

I don't think that removing the Track Bar is a good idea. I drive an '02 F250 7.3, I replaced the front springs with the X-Code springs and added a 2 1/2" leveling kit. I put on a Track Bar Relocation Bracket and 2" blocks under the rear springs to keep everything level and in place. The relocation bracket is to keep the axle centered at the correct spacing. Without relocating the bracket and raising the suspension that much, the stock trackbar would pull the axle over toward the driver side. I also have a noticable clunking that I know is the Track Bar, but I'm not getting rid of it. If the axle moves while the track bar is still in the bracket, imagine how much it would move without the track bar at all.

The purpose of the Track Bar is to keep the axle centered under the truck, without it, the axle will be able to move laterally, maybe not noticable, maybe a lot. That would probably depend on the truck its self, including wear and tear and driving habits. I may try an adjustable track bar, or replacing the bushings, but I'm not going to scrap mine all together. Just my 2 cents.

 

Not that it matters for this conversation but remember that the trac bar doesn't truely keep the axle centered under the truck, it keeps it in a known, acceptable lateral radius under the truck. One of the reasons that worn bars/bushings make noise is that the bar moves the axle slightly left/right while moving through wheel travel.
Split wishbones with diagonals will keep the axle centered.
Picayune, I know, but just thought I'd stir the soup.

Later...
Brewster...

 

That's exactly why the trac-bar should be as horizontal as possible when the truck is sitting at its normal ride height; eliminating bump-steer. The greater the angle of the trac-bar the greater the lateral movement of the axle thru its travel (which would pull the steering drag link causing bump-steer).

That is why HeavyAssault experienced the steer issues with his trac-bar disconnected. As the axle moves laterally it will affect the steering. In fact, the steering drag link may have just kept the axle under the truck! Keep your trac-bar.

 

OK, I get it. Bad Idea to remove trac bar. Couple of questions though. As Skoveng has said, looking at the front end of our trucks, the trac bar appears to "arc" when the suspension flexes. Axle arcs right when springs compress, and left when springs extend...I think. Doesn't this arcing moment put a fair amount of side load on the springs, hangers, shackles, U-bolts steering gear etc.? Following that same line of thought, the springs want to travel in a different direction than the trac bar (up and down vs. arc). So is the added stiffness from the trac bar actually "binding" from the two different components moving in two slightly different directions? If this is true, it would seem that an adjustable trac bar vs. relocated trac bar mounts may offer different ride characteristics. The longer (adjustable bar) probably results in a more plush feel than moving the mounts due to the larger diameter arc. Just speculating.
This is getting a bit off topic I guess, as I'm trying to find the practical issues with removing the trac bar, and now I'm becoming obsessed with the theory and trying to understand it.
Death wobble seems to be the concern/result of the lateral axle movement. I get that. All of us who are/were living with bad bushings, and that popping noise coming from the trac bar (and it sounds like a lot of us) are living with certain amount of lateral axle movement right? Also, it might only be my truck, but that upper (left) trac bar mounting bolt was REALLY worn when I removed it. From the looks of it, it was causing more play than the shot bushings.
By the way, no death wobble yet. 50 or so (careful) road miles, lots of HARD swerving and weaving at approx. 30-40 mph. Up to 70 mph going straight. No ill effects yet...

 

Fyrflyr, I think your point is certainly valid regarding what you said about the arc vs. straight line travel of the axle. I don't see how it would be physically possible to be another way. As far as the stresses on the springs, hangers etc, I think that would be something an engineer would have to address. I think you're also correct about the adjustable track bar, which is one main reason I went with the relocation bracket on mine.

If it works out for you w/o the bar, cool. I'm a little paranoid though, as we live in a very litigious society now where everyone wants to sue everyone else. If I get into an accident and someone peeks under my truck and sees that I've removed components that are otherwise "supposed" to be there, I don't want to get sued for negligence or something.

 

I know its a little OT for this post, but could you post some pics of your truck? I'm looking at doing the same thing you did for a level kit, just trying to get a good idea of how it will look. You can start a new thread if you wish.

 

Fyrflyr18
It is all a matter of geometry. I wish I could attach a sketch to make it clear. For instants, if you were to layout a circle with a 48” line from the center to the 9:00 o’clock position (guessing at the length of the trac-arm at 48” with a horizontal lie); if the suspension compressed 6 inches, the lateral movement of the axle would be 3/8 inches to the right (looking at the truck from the front). If that same 48” line (the radius) was at an angle of 30 deg. down from the 9:00 o’clock position, the same compressed 6 inches of travel would result in a lateral movement of the axle to the left of almost 3 inches. Resulting in bump-steer and spring bushing/suspension bind. The greater the angle from horizontal, the greater the lateral movement. I hope this is clear.

 

Geometry.....ugh.........LOL